The Truth About "School Prayer"

The truth is, no one is trying to "make praying in school illegal," as the neo-fascist Religious Right claims. Nobody is proposing to forbid students from praying, yet supporters of teacher-led prayer in public schools habitually misrepresent the issue in terms that imply this. They are liars. The USA Constitution protects the right of USA students to pray in public school: no one is trying to revoke or abridge this right. The neo-fascist Religious Right, who claim otherwise, ARE LYING.

The Religious Right claim that prayer will be banned, to the detriment of the rights of followers of various religions. As is blatently obvious, students who want to pray have ample opportunity to pray if they want. Their rights are in no way abridged by not having a teacher lead them in prayer. And yet there are fools who believe otherwise, because their cult's masters tell them to believe. Here's one example:

Just today I heard on the Radio that Judge Ira DeMent has ordered there be undercover people put in the Public Schools in Alabama to find the students who are praying (even voluntarily or silently). This is a very scary situation for the Christians of this nation. Everyone from "your side" keeps telling us that all that is wanted is religion taken out of the public square. What happens if you had a child in Alabama's public schools who engaged in prayer and were caught by the "prayer police"? What would happen to your child? Would they just be reprimanded, or would they be imprisoned? Think about it!

Freaky paranoids like this guy seem to number in the thousands.

A few years ago, it was common for supporters of teacher-led school prayer to claim that their opponents wanted to deprive students of the right to pray in school: that was a lie. (George Bush once borrowed this lie for another purpose. Barefaced, he accused people opposed to having teachers lead students in the Pledge of Allegiance of depriving students of the right to say the Pledge.)

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP SOMEONE FROM PRAYING!
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE PRAYING ILLEGAL!

The neo-fascist Religious Right make claims that there is some vast, organized effort to prevent students from praying and reading occult literature in public (tax-funded) schools. Not only is this a lie, but it is blatently absurd: there is no way to know if and when someone is praying! There is no organization out there trying to make students not pray in public schools, nor is there any organization trying to make students not read their occult literature (Bible, Bhagavad-gita, The laws of Manu, The Gospel (Buddha), The Word (also Buddha), The Great Learning (Confucius), Diamond Sutra, Papyrus Of Ani, Koran, Book of Mormon, Upanishads, Epic of Gilgamesh, Analects (also Confucious), apocrypha / pseudepigraphica, and all of the others)) in public schools. If anyone says otherwise, they are LYING.

Praying and reading the Bible has not been removed from public schools, nor will they ever be. Anyone who says otherwise is either a liar or a fool.

Amendment Sponsors The following list of sponsors for the proposed constitutional amendment for teacher-led school prayer introduced by Rep. Istook.
Clergy Clergy Oppose Government-Sponsored Prayer
Clinton Clinton on Teacher-Led School Prayer
Letters Teacher-Led Prayer. Letters to the Editor
Florida Bible Reading in Public School
Dough-Boy Newt Moving Too Fast On Coerced School Prayer
Neo-Fascists Quotes about Public Schools by The Religious Right
Southern Baptist Convention CLC gives Congress input on teacher-led school prayer amendment
FCC And O'Hair Rumors cloud religious issues debate
ACLU Is prayer in public schools constitutional if it is optional? From ACLU Briefing Paper Number 3. "Church and State"
Gov. Fob James A Slip Of The Tongue
Engel v. Vitale the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated New York State's classroom prayer requirement.
ACLU #2 ACLU Suing to Keep Religion out of schools
What The Law Says Religion in the Public Schools. A Joint Statement of Current Law
Chancellor Fernandez Cardinal O'Connor used the pulpit at St. Patrick's Cathedral to congratulate members of the New York City Board of Education who had voted to ditch Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez.
Pres. Clinton Release of Revised Religious Guidelines for America's Public Schools
Against Coerced Prayer In School This brochure was produced by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in order to combat the growing influence of the fascist Religious Right.
Amend The Constitution?! The Prayer Amendment Is Not About Religion But Who Has Power.

Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Matthew 6:6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." --- Jesus

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